Councillor Joan Sturgeon, mother of First Minister Nicola, looks back on 10 years in politics, including a successful tenure as Provost, as she prepares to stand down and concentrate on volunteering.

Councillor Joan Sturgeon will be joining fellow SNP colleagues Willie Gibson and John Ferguson in stepping down from the council, leaving after a decade in politics.

After spending two terms representing Irvine East the former Provost told the Irvine Times she’s looking forward to spending more time volunteering in the community – as well as crafting – after the SNP’s fight to retake control of the council in May.

Joan has no apprehension about stepping down from the council after 10 years, saying it’s good to sort of bow out on a high after getting to represent North Ayrshire as Provost, but admits she’ll miss it.

“I always decided that I would, if I was lucky enough, serve 10 years as a councillor so it was no secret that after 10 years I would step down”, she said.

“You know finish on a high if you like, it wasn’t something that suddenly jumped out at me .

“Family and close friends knew I wouldn’t serve another term, but last year I made it known to everyone that that was what I was going to do.

“There’ s no doubt I’ll miss it. I’ll miss the people and miss the job. Being a councillor kind of gets under your skin.”

She also had no regrets about leaving the post when the SNP group resigned from the council in August after the SNP lost it’ s majority in the by-election when Labour’ s Louise McPhater won against her husband Robin Sturgeon.

“No, you’re elected Provost when you elect an administration so it’s only right that the new administration got the chance to do that, but I had four and a half years under my belt so I’ve no regrets.”

On the party’ s hope of retaking the council, Cllr Sturgeon said: “I’m confident yeah, but we’ve got a lot of work to do, we’re getting a team of great candidates in place.

“But we don’t take anything for granted, you work for every single vote and our team are out there doing just that. So I’m very confident but I know we’ve got a team working right to the bitter end.

Joan Sturgeon previously worked in the biochemistry lab at Crosshouse hospital, before moving into politics in 1999 and working first for Mike Russell, and then her daughter Nicola for five years before she became First Minister.

Joan says her highlight of being Provost was getting to go out and meet so many of the volunteers that help keep the communities ticking, and she’ s looking forward to joining them herself.

She said: “I’m going to be doing quite a bit of volunteering with Food Train, it’ s a fantastic initiative. I’m also hopefully volunteering with others, I’m certainly not going to be idle.

“We’re all aware of volunteering but we don’t realise the amount of people who are out there keeping the communities ticking over and they make me feel quite humble actually.”

Joan also said she was exceptionally proud of the Provost fundraising scheme she spearheaded, which raised around £130,000 for charities such as Cash 4 Kids and Ayrshire Hospice.

Although Joan says there is one painful downside to being Provost.

“The chain was always a pain for me. It’ s a chain designed for a man to wear so I could tell you stories about going home with my shoulders bleeding.

“It was designed to go into a suit so if you were at an evening do, I used to come home with quite a bad cut from the chain being very heavy.

“You never forgot you had it on, but having it was a huge honour of course.

“I had one mounted onto velvet which made it a lot easier for me to carry out my role as provost, which didn’t go down well with certain people.”

On Irvine’s new leisure centre Joan said: “The Portal is amazing, I was always a great advocate of the leisure centre being built in the town, I know there’ s a lot of people who would disagree and will continue to disagree, but I think we have a fantastic facility.

“We’re very fortunate and look forward to seeing Irvine high street come to life again.

“This is a fantastic facility, we should really think how lucky we are.

“I know people’s connection to the Magnum, my girls went to the Magnum but it was too badly in need of upgrading. I think it’s got to go. We don’t want to leave it to fall down on its own.”

On the future of Irvine, Joan said: “I’ve been here for over 40 years. I think Irvine is a vibrant town, the people of Irvine are nice and it is a welcoming place. It’ s somewhere that has suffered no doubt about it, high unemployment a lot of deprivation, but the people are quite stoic, they get on with things and they make the most. I’m sure we’ll go from strength to strength I’ve no doubt of that.”

The former Provost also broke from tradition by having nothing but warm words for the local Labour party, despite recent rows over the budget and general divisiveness of Scottish politics.

“Joe [Cullinane] is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet. Don’t agree with his politics and he certainly wouldn’t agree with mine, but you deal with these people on a day-to-day basis and he’ s one of the nicest guys.”

Councillor Sturgeon remains tight-lipped about when or whether her daughter should trigger a second independence referendum following the the EU vote.

“That’s up to the people who will decide at the time .

“It’s something that’s being discussed but, who knows.”